Early Friday morning four daredevils met in a light rain at the designated meeting place: Eun Hwa,(our new hiking friend from Korea), Chan, Richard and Anders.

The question was: shall we perform the hike or cancel?

The decision was, it may make or break.

0815 started the hike. Chan had his stunning rain hat.

Photo: Anders

We walked up into the gentle rain through a misty agricultural area. At the foot of the plateau the dirt road ended, and we continued uphill on a path through a field of giant bamboo. At the end of the trail, we reached our first cave. It has no name, so I have named it as Chan’s Bat Cave.

All photos by Chan

Please click on photos to enlarge them and enjoy their real beauty.

The daredevils inside Chan’s bat Cave

Chan’s bat cave

Using Chan’s rope we climbed down. The cave looked pretty small from the top. But imagine our surprise, a giant cave with several halls. Up in the ceiling hung huge bats, which became very annoyed by our flashlight. They were the largest I have seen. Great as rats.

Great as rats

Inside the cave, it was hot and dry. Chan terrorized us with an endless photo sojourn. After an hour we climbed up again.

Chan’s bat cave

group inside Chan’s bat cave

Now the rain had switched to heavy monsoon rains. The question now was, shall we be able to climb the trackless terrain up to the plateau? The rain had made the ground slippery and like soap. But thanks to our rope we could handle the last steep bit in the mud. Tired and hungry, we reached our resting hut, the rain poured down, but we sat sheltered under a roof. I asked the group if they wanted to stop and walk home, but they really wanted to see the next cave.

The Tak Kar Tan Cave. I must say that I am glad that we went.

In rain and cold winds we hiked on at the high plateau to the cave. (First time I have been frozen in Thailand).
This cave is enormous, large halls on a string with the height of a cathedral.

TakTan cave entrance

Relaxing at TakTan cave

We went on deep into, at least three hundreds of meters. The bats were of a different kind here, very small in stature.

Group inside TakTan cave

After an exciting cave hike with flashlights, we reached the end of the cave system.

Group inside TakTan cave

I climbed up and saw that the cave went on further in a narrow passage, but we chose to go back.

Chan had his usual photo festival, so the stay in this cave took again one hour. Once outside we were met by rain again. We bit the bullet and walked down to the mountain village. From here we had 4 km down to our cars. Just in time for the finale, the rain stopped and the sky cracked up a bit. Aftermath at the Idol Cafe. Leo for Chan and me, lemon tea for Eun Hwa. Richard had already rushed home.
Chan was generous and stood the bill.
Resume:
A wonderful hike in different terrains, with super extra bonus, cave hikes!
Anders

LOCALITY: TH Op Khan National Park [Chiang Mai]
INVENTORY_NR: CM84
SYNONYM: Cricket Cave; Tham Taktan
X_COORD: X=480.9340 Y_COORD: Y=2076.0640 Z_COORD: Z=805.0000m
COORD_SYS: UTM47/WGS84
DEPTH: 0.0m LENGTH: 630.0m
PERSPECT: GOOD
HISTORY: John Spies visited the cave sometime before 1995 and reported a length of 400m. The cave was surveyed by the French archaeological expedition sometime between 2001 and 2008. In April 2013 Tomek Wyderka and Anel explored the 100m side passage off the main bat chambers.
POSITION: From the H1269 follow the signs and turn off towards the west. Follow the surfaced road to Ban Mong Pang Kwang. Turn left (west) up a rough track which becomes unsurfaced (4WD probably needed unless dry) to reach the top of the ridge. The track skirts a doline (with limestone cliff) on the right to end at the top of a steep slope down (not recommended in the wet). The track ends at a grassy area. Walk down the waterfall and then follow the good path round to the right (north) and ascend a few metres to the entrance.
DESCRIPTION: The 4m high entrance leads to large, dry chambers with old paintings. After 200m the dry mud floor becomes covered in boulders and the scramble up leads to further bat chambers. Here the air is very stuffy and still. Leading off from the north (left hand) wall of these bat chambers is a large passage/chamber which ascends and then turns right. This passage is estimated to be 100m long, about 50m wide in the middle and has a large bat colony. Care has to be taken here as the passage is mud floored with holes down into the bat chambers below. Back in the first part of the cave there is a hole in the

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